Student Veteran Peer Support of the Maryland Veterans Resilience Initiative

Peer support systems have the potential to help veterans transition to civilian life and deal more effectively with behavioral health issues, especially among veterans returning to college campuses. MaVRI will work with six Maryland college campuses over the two years of the project to enhance peer support among student veterans.

Peer Support Facilitators, who are student veterans from the University of Maryland College Park, attend a national training program on peer leadership and veterans' behavioral health issues. These Peer Support Facilitators then work with other Maryland community colleges and universities to establish new student veteran organizations, develop marketing and branding identities for these groups, organize orientation programs and activities for student veterans, advocate for student veteran centers, and assist with other activities identified by the partner campuses.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Howard Community College were selected as Peer Support partner sites in the 2012-13 academic year. Peer Support partners in the 2013-14 academic year are Baltimore City Community College, Bowie State University, College of Southern Maryland, La Plata, and Prince George’s Community College

For more information about the student veteran Peer Support component, please contact us.

Meet Our Peer Support Facilitators

2013-2014

Bellamie Nelson is a veteran of the United States Air Force and a graduate of the Defense Language Institute. She is an Anthropology undergraduate at the University of Maryland.

Henry Carbajales is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps who served in three deplyments in Iraq and helped to protect three American embassies. He is currently a senior Geography major at the University of Maryland and is actively involved with the TerpVets student veteran organizations.

Ben Paul Groce is a former Marine Corps rifleman who is now a senior at UMCP studying Geography. He is proud to be able to help fellow veterans as a peer facilitator with the Maryland's Veterans Resilience Initiative.

William Davis is currently a Sergeant in the U.S. Army guard and previously deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He is a sophomore majoring in Kinesiology at the University of Maryland.

Aaron Bricco is a veteran of the United States Army. He served for seven years as a Sergeant in the Airborne Artillery and was deployed twice to Iraq. He recently transferred from the University of Wisconsin where he was the president of the student veterans club and is currently a business major at the University of Maryland. He is also a board member of TerpVets.

Joseph D. Ruiz is a veteran of the United States Air Force and flew on C-17 cargo planes all over the globe. He is a Computer Science major and former president of TerpVets, the Student Veteran Organization at the University of Maryland.

2012-2013

Jason Theis is a veteran of the United States Army and he served in Iraq from 2009-2010. He is a microbiology major at UMCP and is actively involved in the UM Student Veterans Association and TerpVets.

Nancy Kim is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. She is a communications Major at UMCP and she bi-lingual in English and Korean. She is also currently serving as a Cadre Leader for the UM Student Veterans Association and is an active member of TerpVets.

Alan Poe is Gunny Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and a sociology major at UMCP. He has been on the Dean's List since spring 2011 and he also serves as a student leader for the DC Region Navy ROTC.